Michael Workman

Most people know indie record labels and microbrews but indie toilet paper? That's a new one. Brooklyn visual artist Jed Ela has started his own independent toilet-paper company, ShitBegone, which he sells through a website of the same name. The price isn't bad: $14.99 for sixteen rolls of 420 quilted sheets ("available in both regular and 100% recycled varieties"). But ShitBegone raises the perennial question: Is it art?

"When I first saw it, I was reminded of the Slop Art catalog," says satisfied customer and Chicago-based painter Holly Holmes, referring to the Portland-based fine art company that makes its wares available through K-Mart-style Sunday newspaper advertising inserts. "I was [also] reminded of Manzoni's canned crap project, and this seems in that same vein." In 1961, Italian artist Piero Manzoni canned his own feces and sold them out of galleries. Titled "Merda d'Artista," or "artist's crap," Manzoni's work poked fun at the idea of artist's lifestyle as a consumer product. But Ela himself claims that ShitBegone is "neither a novelty nor an art object." And Chicago conceptual artist Marc LeBlanc expresses mixed reactions. "It's a one-liner. This probably started out as a one-liner art project, and then he decided to make it into a company. The only statement he's making here is that you can make a joke out of toilet paper."

Poo-inspired art has been wildly successful. Take British artist Chris Offili's elephant-shit paintings, for example, or Belgian Wim Delvoye's turd-making machine. Take away the veneer of an art project, however, and ShitBegone's future doesn't look as bright, says LeBlanc. "It'll never make it to the level of a Cottonelle."

(2003-11-05)

Also by Michael Workman

Tip of the Week
The controversial performance-artist offers a site-specific installation at the Evanston-based Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art called "Up To and Including Her Limits"
(2003-10-29)

Eye Exam
Post Chicago enlists artists to produce work in the form of flyers, posters, billboards and leaflets. Their most recent project is Vincent Dermody's "Love Chicago/Hate the Circle"...
(2003-10-29)

Ghost hunter
"The supernatural is more relevant now than ever," says Richard T. Crowe. "Just look at the Curse of the Billy Goat
(2003-10-23)

Eye Exam
Only his second solo exhibition, Berlin-based Hans Hemmert premiers "Drawings/Animated Video" at Vedanta Gallery in the West Loop neighborhood
(2003-10-23)

Tip of the Week
(2003-10-22)

Tip of the Week
(2003-10-16)

Eye Exam
(2003-10-16)

Marshall Art
(2003-10-16)

Tip of the Week
(2003-10-08)

Eye Exam
(2003-10-08)

Eye Exam
(2003-10-02)

Eye Exam
(2003-09-25)

about Newcitychicago | about Newcity magazine | advertising | privacy policy | FAQ | employment